Mar. 24, 2014
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Pope Francis' popularity continues to soar. / Andrew Medichini, AP

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

Presidential meetings with popes can be politically tricky, and President Obama's first audience with Pope Francis on Thursday probably won't be an exception.

Obama will visit Vatican City as religious groups have sued his administration for requiring birth control coverage in health care plans. Conservative Catholics have criticized Obama for his support of abortion rights and gay marriage.

But as with previous presidents who met with popes, Obama sought the audience with Francis because of issues they agree on, in this case the new pope's call to fight poverty and reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Obama admires the pope's "commitment to address issues like income inequality, and his leadership of the church more broadly," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication.

The president and the pope may also discuss foreign policy, including the Middle East and the Russian annexation of Crimea in Ukraine.

The simple fact that the meeting is taking place shows how political and religious times have changed over the years.

Once upon a time in America, Catholic candidates had to convince voters they wouldn't take orders from the pope. Now presidents eagerly seek meetings with popes.

"The pope is also a world leader," said Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with the National Catholic Reporter. "I would call him a leader of the spiritual super power."

Obama, who met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, is the 11th consecutive president (and the 12th overall) to have an audience with a pope. Francis is the sixth pope to meet with a U.S. president.

Meetings with popes can help presidents with large swaths of Catholic voters, but presidents must negotiate difficult political terrain.

Though Obama will talk about income inequality and helping the poor, he is aware of the church's opposition to abortion rights, gay marriage and other social issues backed by Democrats - as well as criticism of his health care plan.

The politics of papal meetings can cut all sorts of ways.

Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, appreciated Pope John Paul II's opposition to abortion rights. But John Paul implicitly criticized Bush over the Iraq War, and the church's opposition to capital punishment runs contrary to many Republican views.

Since Dwight Eisenhower in 1959, U.S. presidents have sought papal audiences. Before that, the only president-pope meeting was in 1919, when Woodrow Wilson, who had been in Paris negotiating the treaty that ended the First World War, decided to visit Rome.

Wilson biographer John Milton Cooper said "there was some grumbling" about that first meeting, "but not all that much."

Anti-Catholic feeling was evident after Wilson's visit. Al Smith, the New York governor nominated for president by the Democrats in 1928, faced signs such as "A Vote for Al Smith is a Vote for the Pope."

Dwight Eisenhower became the second president to meet with a pope, an audience with John XXIII in 1959.

The next year, the United States elected its first â?? and only â?? Catholic president, John F. Kennedy. In 1963, four-and-a-half months before his assassination, Kennedy met with Pope Paul VI.

The pattern was set: All nine presidents after Ike and JFK have had papal audiences.

There are many reasons for the sea change. For one thing, the decline in anti-Catholicism among politicians in many ways paralleled the increase in numbers of Catholic constituents and voters.

Catholic attitudes also changed. The church and the nation became more ecumenical as millions of Catholics left their urban parishes and moved into the suburbs.

After World War II ended and the Cold War with the Soviet Union began, the U.S. government became friendlier with the Catholic hierarchy as the church became an outspoken opponent of communism, especially after the election of Pope John Paul II from Poland in 1978.

There's also a more prosaic explanation: Jet travel makes it easier for presidents and popes to travel overseas.

Gerald Fogarty, a professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia, said these meetings have tended to be "more symbolic than anything substantive."

But symbolism can be important, given the pope's special status among world leaders.

"It makes the president appear to be independent of partisan politics," Fogarty said.